Democratic Senators Say Clarity Act Push Isn’t Over Despite Senate Setback

Seven Democratic senators say they remain committed to passing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, even after the bill failed to clear a key Senate procedural vote this week.

Senators Reaffirm Commitment

In a joint statement Wednesday, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Angela Alsobrooks, Cory Booker, Catherine Cortez Masto, Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Raphael Warnock said the setback doesn’t mark the end of their work on the bill. The group said they’ve spent two years trying to pass crypto legislation that expands opportunity, protects consumers, penalizes bad actors, and includes strong ethics provisions for elected officials. They added they intend to keep working in a bipartisan way to get it passed. Notably, all seven senators who signed the statement had actually voted against the bill on Tuesday, when it landed just 49 of the 60 votes needed to advance.

Analysts Say Focus Is Shifting to Regulators

Despite the senators’ statement, financial analysts at StoneX believe the bill is effectively dead for this Congress, pointing out that only 14 working days remain before campaign season takes over lawmakers’ attention. Instead, analysts at Bernstein expect the SEC and CFTC to step in with their own targeted rulemaking, potentially addressing how native crypto tokens are classified, protections for DeFi and self-custody, and rules for tokenized equities.

JPMorgan analysts added that agency-led rules could offer some near-term confidence to the crypto industry and support incremental capital flows, though they cautioned such rules carry less legal weight than actual legislation.